1 x 250w cfl grow in a 3 foot tall box

Seal,

Yes those are fine for the first week perhaps two. I would try to add cold or bright white one too. Ideally it will be marked 6500K (in tiny print somewhere)

Choice of soil is important and can make a big difference to your grow. I take it you are a brit? Find the UK Grower's thread and ask them what they recommend. Take a little time with this.

People in the US do use Miracle Grow but I hear it's tricky. Their nutrient products are used too but mainly by the newbies, or so it seems from my reading. In anycase, I've never heard anyone getting excited about them and MJ growers get very worked up about their nutes. Again, this is important and ask the UK growers. They are all crazy but they do know how to grow MJ

Good luck with everything. I can only tell you what I would do in your situation. It's your grow and you should run it how you please. You have to do what makes sense to you. After all, if things dont work and you didnt understand why you did them in the first place, how are you going to fix them? After your first one you will have a much better idea of how things work in your set up and you will make improvements every grow.

thanks for all the advice so far

everything is setup now are my first grow has started seeds are germinating, i have gone with 4 plants 2x afghan kush ryder and 2x blue himalaya and their going into 5litre pots and the soil i have gone with is miracle grow moisture control compost and ive added pearlite to it (About 30%) to make it more drainable, will put somem photos up tomorow and she you the cab underway

also does any1 recommend using nutrients or should i not because miracle grow apparently has its own nutrients... ive got some miracle grow tomato food and the npk is 3-0.9-6 would this be suitable?

thanks

Not much of an update but the seeds have popped out the shell and should be ready to plant tomorrow i think

Alright! You pulled the trigger !

Keep us posted. I'm curious to see how this goes.

Thanks ZVUV, im abit pissed off atm cause my mylar still has arrived but everything else is up and running..
so only 3 out of the 4 seeds germinated and all 3 are now in soil and have just poked their heads through the soil.
i flushed the soil (miracle grow moisture control compost) and added perlite to make it drain better about 3 days befor i planted the germinated seeds and its been 3 days since they have been in the soil now, so i this morning i checked the soil to see if it needed some water but it still feels abit moist and not bone dry.. Any1 have any advice? also the pots are 5litre so how much water should i be looking to give them? i have some pictures of the seeds poking through the soil but their not very good quality..sorry


so the 2 pots on the left are afghan kush ryder and ive showed you the picture of the one at the back left and the other picture is the back right which is a blue himalaya, the 2 pots on the right are ment to be for the blue himalayas but only one pot has a seed in it due to one not germinating..
I also have a fan on the bottom right for intake and one on the top left for exhaust and since pluggin them in the temp has dropped to about 21 celcius, just waitin for my mylar to hurry up and arrive now!

thanks for looking and please please please can any1 give me any advice on the watering side of the story?

thanks will keep updating

please please help.... seeds have been in soil for 3 days without bein watered and soil was last watered(flushed) 3 days b4 the seeds went in so 6 days since the soil has had any water but still feels a lil moist, please please help as i dont want to kill my lil babies but im tempted to water them even if its just 200ml of water or something!!

Cab looks nice.

If the soil feels moist leave it. If you must do something mist the surface of the soil and cover the pots over with saran wrap or somesuch. A pot that size, with no plant to draw the water out of it, will stay moist for quite a long time but the surface may dry.

Your temps are a bit cool. For seeds you want 24C - 35C. The colder they are the slower they germinate. Seeds usually break ground in3 days but in cold conditions it can be much longer. You might try an incandescent bulb while germinating, just for the heat.

You dont need the mylar for a while.

Thanks alot for your help buddy,

so ive given each pot 150ml of water just to most the soil a bit, i might turn the fans off for a few days so the temp rises to about 25C? and also why do i not need the mylar for a while? am i not losing out on too much light?

and when should i add my monster 250w cfl? in a few days?

Heh, sometimes I wish I could just pop a seed in the pot at night and wake up in the morning to find my dope all ready to smoke

I know you are eager and a bit impatient but you have to be careful and gentle at this stage. Germination and seedling are the most vulnerable phases of the plant's life. It must walk a narrow path between dying of dehydration and rotting from too much humidity. (I've done both). As I remember it, England is a damp moldy place so you need to take care

The seedling does not need light for energy for quite some time. She will live off the cotyledons for now (the fat little leaves that come out of the seed) It needs light for orientation so that it grows right and for heat. At this point, considering your temps, an incandescent bulb would be good.

When the first set of true leaves are about 1/4" long, put her under a small cfl. You can't feed steak to a newborn baby. The plants ability to use light depends on it's leaves and when it doesnt have much in the way of leaves, it doesnt want much in the way of light. When the second set of true leaves appears, you can put her under the big light but some distance away. This will be 5-10 days after the seedling breaks the surface.

Once the plant can stand to be close to the light, in other words, she is ready to use all the light you can give her, then reflective walls will make some difference.

This is a bootstrapping process, the bigger the plant , the more light it can use, the more light it can use the faster it grows and the faster it grows the faster its appetite for light will grow. When you get to flowering the plant will happily suck up light from a 1000W HID lamp. Right now, you have to get her big enough so that she can use some light to get bigger when she will be able to use more light etc.

Low temps will slow germination down considerably. Do what you can to bring the temp up to about 35C but be careful, too much hotter and you can cook them.

Once the plant is established, it becomes much tougher and take swings in temp and humidity with less trouble.

If you are using Miracle Grow soil, you need to read up on how to grow MJ in it. There are quite a few threads that talk about this. As I understand MG has fertilizer pellets in it and if you dont handle it right the pellets release too much ferts and burn young plants. I've never grown in MG so this is just what I have picked up from browsing on RIU.

Good luck mate

thanks alot mate, all the help is appreciated and i am taking it all in, i am very unpatient i no nd i wish i could be smoking the baby when i wake up too haha but yer im going to do sum research about the soil as you are correct they do have fert pellets and also think about the lighting situaton nd get another bulb like u said for heat.

thanks and i will keep updating as they get bigger

ok lil update..

so were in day 6 and ive added a 3rd 20w cfl (one above each plant) to make it grow up cause they were going to the side abit.
ide say average temp has been around 29c and on day 5 i fed it 300ml of water and it seemed to all just drain out.
they look healthy/ok to me but then again im not 100% sure how it shud look anyway.
think im gonna put the big cfl on soon as mylar arriaves(hopefully 2mo) because the blue himalaya looks to have shooted up abit and double the leaf size
here are some photos of day 6.......PLEASE tell me if this looks ok for day 6.........Thanks

They look good except for the stretch problem. Seedlings tend to reach for the light. If they get too long, they fall over and pinch the thin stem. After that it's downhill.

If it were me, the first thing I would do would be to give them some support. Find something like a bamboo stick or a piece of wire about 3" long and push it into the ground near the plant but not close enough to damage the root. Bend the wire a bit so that the top is next to the top of the plant and tie the top of the plant loosely to the stick. It's fiddly work. Be patient and careful.

Then I would lower the cfls to about 1" above the plant tops.

Last I would try to set up a very light breeze, just enough to make the stems jiggle a little. That will stimulate the plants to thicken their stems.

thanks for all the advice zvuv rep to u matey++, ive got a updated version of my grow in the right section now and would really appreciate your advice have a look the link is on my signature.. peace